Yesterday, 17 November 2016, the Yoshkar Ola City Court compelled the Ministry of the Interior of the Russian Federation to pay two million rubles to relatives of Maksim Yadykov, who died in 2014 after the examination fight when he wanted to join the Republican Special Police Force. After the court verdict enters into force, lawyer of the Committee for Prevention of Torture Dmitry Yalikov, representing the interests of the deceased, will appeal against the dismissal of the criminal case in relation to Maxim’s death.
(Father of the deceased, Anatoly Yadykov and lawyer of the Committee for Prevention of Torture Dmitry Yalikov)
As we have previously reported, on 15 December 2014 Anatoly Yadykov and Rimma Yadykova applied to human rights defenders for legal assistance. According to the couple, in September last year Maksim decided to join the Mary El Department of Interior Special Police Force. Having passed the medical examining board with conclusion «fit for service in Special Police Force», on 9 October he arrived at the police unit to pass an exam for physical training. On the same day at around 4 p.m. the young man’s parents received a call from an unknown number and someone informed them that Maksim felt bad during the exam, the ambulance was called, but «it’s nothing at all serious». However in a while the Yadykov family received another call and this time they were informed that their son was in Yoshkar-Ola City Hospital in the state of coma. The young man’s parents who came to the medical institution were straight away informed that the case was very challenging and the surgery was ongoing.
On the next day at about 9 in the evening Maksim’s parents learned that their son died in hospital without regaining consciousness.
(Maksim Yadykov, source of photo: https://vk.com)
Later on the forensic medical examination established that the young man’s death resulted from «a severe cerebral contusion with the brain compression with a left-side subdural hemorrhage, which developed due to a closed craniocerebral injury». According to the expert’s opinion, these injuries resulted from «a quadruple impact of a blunt object».
On 11 October 2014 the Yadykov family applied to the Investigative Department of Yoshkar-Ola Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee for the Republic of Mary El. During eight months the Investigative Department conducted checks based on the results of which it issued four illegal refusals to initiate criminal proceedings. And only eight months after, on 22 June 2015, the criminal case was initiated based on Part 1 Article 109 of the Russian Criminal Code («infliction of death by negligence»).
On 22 February 2016 new investigator for this case Stanislav Solovyev passed a ruling on dismissal of the criminal case due to absence of the element of crime. «In the case under question the criminal justice case represented by guiltless harm-doing is underway» – that was the opinion of the investigator.
At the same time, investigator Solovyev made a submission to the head of the Special Police Force for the Republic of Mari El on taking measures in order to rectify the circumstances contributing to committing the crime. In his submission the investigator asked to “consider introducing into the rules of the endurance and stamina testing of the Special Police Force candidates obligatory presence of a medical worker with a higher post graduate education, as well as checking the candidate’s general well-being, his arterial pressure at all the stages of the testing, i.e. right before the testing, during the breaks between the rounds and right after its completion”. The investigator suggested considering the legal responsibility the Deputy Head of the Republican Special Police Force, who failed to take appropriate measures on proper arrangement of the testing.
In their turn, Maksim Yadykov’s parents and brother applied to the Yoshkar Ola City Court with a lawsuit against the Republican and the Federal Ministry of the Interior on compensation of moral damage inflicted to them by the death of their close relative. The interests of the Yadykov family in court were represented by lawyer of the Committee for Prevention of Torture Dmitry Yalikov.
During the examination of the case representative of the Ministry of the Interior Sergey Kireyev, who asked the court to dismiss the claims under the lawsuit, entered the minutes of the meeting, conducted with regard to investigator Solovyev’s submission, to the case. The result of this meeting was that none of the Special Police Force was brought to disciplinary action. However, as Kireyev pointed out, the Republican Ministry of the Interior applied to the Ministry of the Interior of Russia with a suggestion of obligatory presence of a medical worker with a higher post graduate education during the sparring fights.
Representative of the Yoshkar Ola Prosecutor’s Office Valeria Pavlova partially supported the claims under the lawsuit and asked to satisfy the claims to the Ministry of the Interior of the Mari El Republic.
As a result, the court held that the Yadykov family claims shall be satisfied partially and compelled the Ministry of the Interior of the Russian Federation to pay compensation in the amount of two million rubles to mother, father and brother of the deceased.
“Despite the fact that the court diminished the amount of compensation claimed under the lawsuit, we are satisfied with the ruling and will not appeal against it, – comments lawyer of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture Dmitry Yalikov, representing the interests of Maksim Yadykov’s parents. – After the court ruling enters into legal force, we shall appeal against the investigator’s dismissal of the criminal case based on the fact of Maskim Yadykov’s death”.